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November 2, 2016 . 8pmDEKELBOUM CONCERT HALL

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University of Maryland School of Music presents

MARYLAND COMMUNITY BAND and UNIVERSITY BAND in concert

MARYLAND COMMUNITY BANDBill Sturgis, conductor

Chorale and Shaker Dance (1971)John Zdechlik

An American in Paris (1928)George Gershwin

Symphonic Dances from Fiddler on the Roof (1964)Jerry Bock

Summon The Heroes (1996)John Williams

UNIVERSITY BANDCraig G. Potter, conductor

Blue Shades (1997)Frank Ticheli

O Magnum Mysterium (1994)Morten Lauridsen

Two Distinct Dances

I. Faeroe Island Dance (1946) Percy Grainger

II. Danzon from Fancy Free (1944) Leonard Bernstein

Marche Slave, Op. 31 (1878)Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky

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Chorale and Shaker DanceJohn ZdechlikBorn: May 2, 1937 in Minneapolis, MinnesotaInstrumentation: Concert BandDuration: 10 minutesComposed: 1971

This masterwork has become a standard in the band repertoire since its premiere at the 1972 National MENC Convention in Atlanta. The work contains two basic ideas; theChorale, which is a simple, single phrased melody, and the familiar Shaker song Simple Gifts. John Zdechlik is a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he is an active composer, performer, conductor, and clinician. He earned his Ph.D. in Theory and Composition from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Paul Fetler and Frank Bencriscutto. Since 1970, Dr. Zdechlik has written numerous commissioned and published works for high school and college concert bands.

An American in ParisGeorge GershwinBorn: September 26, 1898 in Brooklyn, New YorkDied: July 11, 1937 in Los Angeles, CaliforniaInstrumentation: OrchestraTranscription: Jerry Brubaker, 1994Duration: 9 minutesComposed: 1928

An American in Paris is a jazz-influenced symphonic poem written in 1928 by the American composer George Gershwin. Inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris, it evokes the sights and energy of the French capital in the 1920s and is one of his best known compositions. Gershwin says about his composition: My purpose here is to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city and listens to various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere. When the tone poem moves into the blues, our American friend ... has succumbed to a spasm of homesickness. However, nostalgia is not a fatal disease. The American visitor once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life and the street noises and French atmosphere are triumphant.

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Symphonic Dances from Fiddler on the RoofJerry BockBorn: November 23, 1928 in New Haven, ConnecticutDied: November 3, 2010, in Westchester, New YorkInstrumentation: Musical Theatre Transcription: Ira HearshenDuration: 8 minutesComposed: 1964

Fiddler on the Roof is Broadways 16th longest running show in history. It is the winner of nine Tony awards including Best Musical and Best Score. This musical tells the story of Tevye, the father of five daughters, who tries to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as the world around him begins to change. Symphonic Dances from Fiddler on the Roof, as arranged by Ira Hearshen, extracts 6 dances from the original score and presents them as a work unto its own.

Summon the HeroesJohn WilliamsBorn: February 8, 1932 in New York CityInstrumentation: Orchestra Transcription: John HigginsDuration: 5 minutesComposed: 1996

John Williams composed this one movement orchestral composition specifically for the 1996 Summer Olympics. It premiered July 19, 1996, at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. This piece is the third of four compositions Williams has written for the Olympics, following 1984s Olympic Fanfare and Theme and 1988s Olympic Spirit, and preceding 2002s Call of the Champions.

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Blue ShadesFrank TicheliBorn: January 21, 1958 in Monroe, LouisianaInstrumentation: Concert BandDuration: 10 minutesComposed: 1997

In 1992 I composed a concerto for traditional jazz band and orchestra, Playing With Fire, for the Jim Cullum Jazz Band and the San Antonio Symphony. That work was composed as a celebration of the traditional jazz music I heard so often while growing up near New Orleans.

I experienced tremendous joy during the creation of Playing With Fire, and my love for early jazz is expressed in every bar of the concerto. However, after completing it I knew that the traditional jazz influences dominated the work, leaving little room for my own musical voice to come through. I felt a strong need to compose another work, one that would combine my love of early jazz with my own musical style.

Four years, and several compositions later, I finally took the opportunity to realize that need by composing Blue Shades. As its title suggests, the work alludes to the Blues, and a jazz feeling is prevalent -- however, it is in not literally a Blues piece. There is not a single 12-bar blues progression to be found, and except for a few isolated sections, the eighth-note is not swung.

The work, however, is heavily influenced by the Blues: Blue notes (flatted 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths) are used constantly; Blues harmonies, rhythms, and melodic idioms pervade the work; and many shades of blue are depicted, from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.

At times, Blue Shades burlesques some of the clichs from the Big Band era, not as a mockery of those conventions, but as a tribute. A slow and quiet middle section recalls the atmosphere of a dark, smoky blues haunt. An extended clarinet solo played near the end recalls Benny Goodmans hot playing style, and ushers in a series of wailing brass chords recalling the train whistle effects commonly used during that era.

Blue Shades was commissioned by a consortium of thirty university, community, and high school concert bands under the auspices of the Worldwide Concurrent Premieres and Commissioning Fund.

-Frank Ticheli

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O Magnum MysteriumMorten LauridsenBorn: February 27, 1943 in Colfax, WashingtonInstrumentation: ChoirTranscription: H. Robert Reynolds, 2003Duration: 6 minutesComposed: 1994

O magnum mysterium,et admirable sacramentum,ut animalia viderent Dominumnatum, jacentum in praesepio!Beata Virgo, cujus viscerameruerunt portareDominum Christum. Alleluia!

For centuries, composers have been inspired by the beautiful O magnum mysterium text with its juxtaposition of the birth of the new-born King amongst the lowly animals and shepherds. This affirmation of Gods grace to the meek and the adoration of the Blessed Virgin are celebrated in my setting through a quiet song of profound inner joy.

-Morten Lauridsen

Faeroe Island Dance (Lets Dance Gay in Green Meadow)Percy Aldridge GraingerBorn: July 8, 1882 in Melbourne, AustraliaDied: February 20, 1961 in White Plains, New YorkInstrumentation: Concert BandDuration: 3 minutesComposed: 1946

The Faeroe Islands lie between the Shetland Islands and Iceland. The Faeroe Islanders are the descendants of those West-Norwegian sea-rovers who, in the 9th century, settled the lands west over sea: Iceland, the Faeroes, the Shetlands, the Orkneys, the Hebrides and the coasts and islands around Scotland and Ireland. The Faeroe Islanders are famous for their good looks, their highly becoming national costumes, their daring as cliff-scaling egg-gatherers and their passion for dancing. The language is closely akin to Icelandic (Old Norse) and folk songs of many periods abound in the islands. Until quite recently no musical instruments (not even organs and harmoniums in churches) were known on the Faeroes. So the music accompanying the dance was narrative dance-folksong--dance-tunes sung by voices instead of played on instruments. Long rimed stories about legendary and historical figures and groups--the Vlsungs, the Nibelungs, Siegfried, Charlemagne, Roland, Attila, Tristram, Norna-Gest, etc.--as well as versified

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excerpts from the Icelandic sagas were chanted by a single voice (foresinger) answered by symbolically significant refrains (such as the title of this number) sung by a chorus--in unison, without harmonies of any kind.

That the Faeroe Island narrative songs often run into two hundred or more verses is another factor making for tireless keeping-on-ness. It seems to me that this mesmeric frenzy should be captured in any harmonized versions of such dance-folksongs, and this is what I strive to do in my settings of them. Those who describe my dance-folksong settings as examples of variation-form overlook the fact that the variation-form is rooted in type-contrasts between one variation and another and in the clearly-defined beginnings and endings of sectional forms; whereas my dance-folksong settings aim at giving an impression of large-size continuity and unbroken form-flow--with readiness on my part to welcome whatever monotony may result from this my method.

The Faeroe Island dance songs show the original way of dealing, musically, with 7-foot verse--turning it quite straightforwardly into 7-beat music. This differs from the habits of recent centuries, in which 7-foot-verse is transformed into 8-beat music by dwelling for 2 beats on each 7th foot of the verse. By this procedure both 7-foot and 8-foot verse are levelled into one great uniformity of 8-beat rhythm.